A train of thoughts and writings on development, technology and the economy focusing on the socio-techno-economic-cultural surge of developing economies to regain and partake in leadership of the world. Written by George Easaw. (This is purely an academic site, no commercial use is allowed. Photography rights lie with the respective organisations). Mention credits as needed.

Friday, May 30, 2008

The traffic chaos at Electronic city Ph II junction in the morning between 8 and 10 AM. It is madness !!!!!. Even though there are private security guards (totally untrained for controlling traffic) manning the point, not a single police officer is in sight, it is utter chaos ( some mornings an officer in mufti is seen controlling traffic at electronic city phase I stop).

Until the elevated highway is in place ( God knows how long it will take..), the authorities need to do something urgent. Here are some ideas which could be implemented immediately to save petrol and diesel and save the country precious foreign exchange from vehicles idling at the junction for traffic to clear.

1. The immediate need of the hour is to have a traffic signal light installed there. ( vehicles come from all directions and presently they go the way they like causing even the normal traffic on Hosur Road to come to a standstill)

2. The second step is effective policing to catch and heavily fine traffic law offenders. I have seen so called sensible people taking the left most lane and at the junction pushing their way to the right most causing the whole traffic to come to a halt. The vehicle numbers of motorists and heavy vehicle drivers jumping , lights and lane should be immediately noted down and fined.

3. The private people controlling traffic should be properly trained and be given enough authority to confiscate licences from traffic rule offenders.

4. BMTC buses should be asked to stop to embark and disembark passengers only at the extreme left section of the road instead of at the middle.

5. Pedestrian crossing (Zebra crossing) be made very visible at important junctions on the Hosur Road for the comfort of the pedestrians.

6. The construction co. should be asked to inform the traffic dept of major blocks or realignment on the road to enable planning for smooth traffic flow.

Hope the Bangalore traffic authorities take note of this and do something for restoring normal flow of traffic on the Hosur Road.

It was interesting to read news reports during the past week of a community in Rajasthan, called the Gujjars, ( the Jats ) take to the streets, cause damage and destroy public property and disturb public peace not only in their homeland, but also in other states of North India, notably New Delhi.

The most worrying factor was that the movement of the Gujjars is being led by an army Colonel, Kirori Singh Bainsla, a person who, by his profession, is committed to help keep the rule of law and maintain peace and order in the country.

The reason for this agitation was that Gujjars were not being branded as Scheduled Tribes ( akin to the nomadic tribes roaming the mountains, wearing only shaddis, with bow and arrow, wild dances and so on). They were not content with the other backward community (OBC) status given to them. (neither have we seen Col Bainsla dancing around the fire in his shaddis..) They are aware of the spoils and gains from a reservation system being practiced in this country for the past many years. It was really pathetic to see how Col Bainsla after having enjoyed the frills of power during his lifetime, was now fighting for improving the lot of his community, by taking them lower in the social strata, from OBC to ST. What a pity !!

Their reason was that Ms. Raje, the BJP CM of Rajasthan had promised them ST status in her election fake promises. Sadly, the Gujjars took these election promises and , look what soup the are in now....

Kaychittu irakkanum vayya, madhurichittu thuppanum vayya ..

Sadly, this community thinks that it can take the country to ransom.. It reflects the low IQ of the community leaders who still believe they can have their way in this large democracy.Somebody needs to inject some sense into them.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I happened recently, just last week, to go to the Rajagiri Engg College in Rajagiri valley in Kakkanad, Ernakulam, St Josephs College of Engg, Pala (where our former Principal Dr P J George and DTE is the Project Director) and Christ College here in Bangalore. Mind boggling !! The number of institutions they have and the infrastructure was simply great. Huge buildings and the way they are being run !!

I wonder wherefrom they receive the money to run these Institutions. Is it only in India the religious institutions or minority institutions are so powerful monetarily and politically that they usually have their way through without much of problems..

Have some of the religious minority institutions lost the zeal for service and become truly commercial institutions ?? Viewing everything with a commercial eye ??

Is somebody misusing the long placed trust the public has in religious institutions as being pious and service oriented?

Just thinking loud .. especially when the pubic is sensitised about what is happening in the name of spirituality and so on ..

Monday, May 26, 2008

KP Yohannan was in the news last night for the wrong reason. he and his force of volunteers an family members had purchased a big estate in erumely, ( I have seen this estate myself with the name of their church written on board..). The only thing is this estate is in the name of his family members and not in the name of h church or the believers whos money was used to buy this 250 acre estate. May be it is God's desire that only KP Yohannan and family should handle the money of the gullible faithful. But the govt needs to know the source of the money and how it is being spent and in whose name. Fair enough .. Unless the govt uses these controls, there will be havoc caused by these aggressive christians in this country.

The problem with these rock'n'roll born again christians is that they fail to see reason or accept others' viewpoint. They are God's chosen few and are waiting to receive the passport to make the trip straight to heaven, leaving other christians and people of other faiths to die a horrible death in this world.

With just a little knowledge of the Bible verses and convenient, incorrect and biased interpretations to suit their mode of belief, they get aggressive in their belief, often leading to friction among believers.. (The Bible is inspired word of God, and has undergone numerous revisions and editing over the first one thousand years when it was not in print and was conveyed by palm leaf writing and so on and then for the next seven hundred years or so, it has undergone numerous revisions..). It is the inspired word from the Bible with the traditions that have been followed over the past two thousand years which is the foundation of Christianity. (Not following the Bible, word by word, coma by coma..) It is precious and not to be kicked around like what these people are doing, like a milch cow.

These liberal christian beliefs (protestant) which took shape five hundred years ago ( and have no traditions worth their salt..) have actually made it so easy for any Tom, Dick and Harry to start his/her own church and group of followers to start the spiritual business to make money and mislead the faithful, wean them away from their faith and wreak havoc everywhere...

Also the Bible asks us to beware of such false prophets who come in His name and create havoc among his believers. Before they have the last laugh, let us get together and expose these fraudsters... and give peace to some of the intelligentia who have preferred to give them company than see reason ...

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Today is the 41 st day after the demise of Dr Thomas Zacahariah, a very famous and kind surgeon from the Medical College Hospital, Trivandrum.

Our attachment with Dr Thomas Zachariah and his wife Mrs. Sara Thomas, the writer, is through their daughter and son-in-law, Deepa Thomas and Charles John Zachariah, who was my colleague at MRF Ltd Goa during 1987-88. Their two sons, Karthik and Thilak are also friends of our kids, Thilak and Jobi studied in the sam class at Almeida, Ponda, Goa.

Whenever Dr and his wife used to visit Goa to their daughter's place, they made it a point to visit us too.

Doctor was a very quiet and friendly person full of josh for life like his wife, the famed writer of Malayalam literature and member of the Kerala State film censor Board.

Doctor spent his last moment on his wife's lap taking a small nap, nobody thought this small nap would become the eternal one on this earth. Only to be raised in God's presence soon.

Wish Doctor's soul peace everlasting. ( No doubt he has brought peace through service to mankind, to innumerable people and was a great humanist and philanthropist..)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

It was a pleasant evening with Anila's aunties, thankammamma, amminiammamma and valsammamma and cousin gisha, pradeep and kids at our house yesterday. They came home at 3 PM and left at 5.30 PM. Kid ha pretty good time, with no water and electricity, it was a bit difficult for all of them, nonetheless, we managed ..

Monday, May 05, 2008

This happens to be the opinion of the U Secretary of State , Ms Rice and subsequently the President Mr Bush. As Indians have started eating better quality food, naturally there is a scarcity of food grains and this has resulted in increase of food grain prices all over the world.

How true is this statement ?

Are we robbing the US citizens of their right to splurge on food ? Are we robbing the US citizens of their freedom to have high quality, low cost food at the expense of feeding the poor from other countries of the world ?

Even now we have millions who are still living in poverty in India.

Did Mr Bush and Ms Rice commit and diplomatic and factual blunder by their utterances ?

Saturday, May 03, 2008

World agriculture is in dire straits.. The cost of foodgrains is increasing day by day. There is scarcity of food grains all over the world. It is estimated that by 2020, we will be burning 400 tonnes of foodgrains a year for producing biofuel !!

It is high time we seriously thought of the crisis about to grip this world.

There are some threats and trends which are being observed in the world agriculture scenario. It makes sense to understand these threats and trends completely and figure out ways to circumvent the damaging effects of these trends.

The first threat is definitely the threat of feeding an increasing world population from the limited arable land on this earth. By 2050, we will need to feed almost 9 billion people in this world, up from the present 6 billion. With less land, less water and less nutrients staring at us on the face, we should be doubling the crop output across the world. Rapid industrialisation happening in major countries of the world is the second threat - When this rapid indutrialisation happens in two of the most populous countries of the world, one can imagine the problems it can result in. The other day I was totally taken aback with a statement from the US Secretary of State, Ms. Rice that the present food shortage of the world is the result of the changed food habits of the people in India and China. Changing food prefereneces, higher purchasing power, demand for better quality food, can all put greater strain on the countries exporting food grains.

The third threat is the pressure on global water resources, environment and natural resources - With increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, the global water resources ar being diverted from the environment and farmlands. The threatend species of flora and fauna who share this planet earth with us are strained to having to live in reduced land mass and with lesser resources.

The fourth trend is th growing demand of biofuels resulting in foodgrains getting diverted to the more profitable biofuels industry, leading to food shortages and increases in food prices.

Threat of climate change on productivity of land : with the global climate chnging presure is on the existing land mass to produce more. With climate changes adversely affecting us, land productivity is decreasing.